Part 1

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE

Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. Bold text is denoted by =equal signs=. Superscripts (eg y^r) are indicated by ^ and have not been expanded. Dates of form similar to 164-2/3 have been changed to 1642/3.

This book was published in two volumes, of which this is the second. The first volume was released as Project Gutenberg ebook #46529, available at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46529.

Obvious typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.

More detail can be found at the end of the book.

CORNISH WORTHIES.

_With Map, Fcap. 8vo., cloth, 2s._

TOURISTS' GUIDE TO CORNWALL

AND THE SCILLY ISLES.

=Containing full information concerning all the principal Places and Objects of Interest in the County.=

By WALTER H. TREGELLAS, Chief Draughtsman, War Office.

'We cannot help expressing our delight with Mr. W. H. Tregellas's masterly "Guide to Cornwall and the Scilly Isles." Mr. Tregellas is an accomplished antiquary and scholar, and writes with love and complete knowledge of his subject. For anyone interested in one of the most interesting English counties we could recommend no better guide to its geology, history, people, old language, industries, antiquities, as well as topography; and the well-selected list of writers on Cornwall will be of the greatest service in enabling the reader to pursue the subject to its limits.'--_The Times._

'A capital Guide to Cornwall.'--_The Athenæum._

'Mr. Tregellas has compiled his Guide with great judgment. The general tourist could not desire a better companion.'--_The Academy._

'The volume is written in a style much superior to that usually found in guide-books, and every page is full of just the kind of information that is being constantly looked for during a holiday trip.'--_The Examiner._

'Altogether this is, far and away, the fullest and handiest Cornish guidebook.'--_Western Morning News._

LONDON: EDWARD STANFORD, 55, CHARING CROSS, S.W.

CORNISH WORTHIES:

_SKETCHES OF SOME EMINENT CORNISH MEN AND FAMILIES_.

BY

WALTER H. TREGELLAS.

_IN TWO VOLUMES.--VOL. II._

'Cornubia fulsit Tot fœcunda viris.'

JOSEPH OF EXETER (XIIIth century).

LONDON:

ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.

1884.

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

PAGE

THE GRENVILLES OF STOW; HEROES BY SEA AND LAND 1

INCLEDON; THE SINGER 87

THE KILLIGREWS; DIPLOMATISTS, WARRIORS, COURTIERS, AND POETS 113

RICHARD LANDER; THE EXPLORER 197

THE REV. HENRY MARTYN, B.D.; THE CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY AND ORIENTAL SCHOLAR 219

OPIE; THE PAINTER 243

THE ST. AUBYNS OF CLOWANCE AND THE MOUNT 279

TREVITHICK; THE ENGINEER 305

VIVIAN; THE SOLDIER 343

INDEX 365

ERRATA AND ADDENDA.

Introduction, p. xiv., for _Dean Miller_ read _Dean Milles_.

JOHN ANSTIS. (Vol. i., p. 33.)

His heraldic and other collections now form part of the Stowe MSS. in the British Museum.

See also p. 78 of that Catalogue.

THE ARUNDELLS.

'_Sir John Arundell_, the Vice-Admiral of Cornwall who took prisoner Duncan Campbell, the Scottish pirate, is said to have been a native of Truro.'--Lysons 'Magna Britannia--Cornwall,' p. 313. (Vol. i., p. 84.)

'In Norden's time' (says Lysons), 'the Arundells had twelve seats in Cornwall.'

_Sir Thomas_ (afterwards Lord) _Arundel_ of Wardour, 1595, at Strigonium (Gran), says, 'being arrived at the camp at the very instant of that great and onlie Battaile between us and the Turks, unknown unto anie, and uncommanded of anie, I presented myselfe in the front of the armie, where, by reason of my plumes of feathers, of my armour, bases and furniture, all full of gould and silver (a thing there altogether unusual), I was presently marked by all men's eyes.'--_Vide_ 'Count Arundell's Apologie to Lord Burghley.' (Vol. i., p. 58.)

THE BASSETS. (Vol. i., p. 107.)

_Philip Basset_ was appointed Chief Justiciary of England by Henry III., in place of Hugh le Despenser, _circ._ 1260, after the attempt of the barons to seize the King's person at Winchester.--(Pat. 45 Hen. III., m. 8; and Rot. Claus., 45 Hen. III., m. 10 dors.)

The Royal Cornwall Infirmary, which dates from 1779, contains a tablet which records 'the establishment, permanency, and usefulness of the charity to be chiefly due to the munificent liberality and unwearied exertions of _Francis, Lord de Dunstanville_.' (Vol. i., p. 36.)

HENRY BONE, R.A. (Vol. i., p. 159.)

Many beautiful examples of his works are preserved at Mr. Hope's, Deepdene, near Dorking.

THE BOSCAWENS. (Vol. i., p. 199.)

The well-known non-juror, Bishop Trelawny, was a Dean of Buryan. See the seal of the Deans figured in Rev. W. Iago's paper, R. I. C. Journal, vol. viii., part i., March, 1884.

THE GODOLPHINS. (Vol. i., p. 378.)

There is a portrait of the celebrated Margaret Godolphin at Wotton, the seat of the Evelyns.

The letter signed 'Frances Godolphin,' vol. i., p. 173, should read as signed 'Frances St. Aubyn.'

THE GRENVILLES. (Vol. ii., p. 67.)

John Grenville (afterwards Earl of Bath) was Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance 1702-5.

SIR BEVILL GRENVILLE. (Vol. ii., p. 64.)

I am indebted to a recent very interesting biography of Sir Bevill by Mr. Alfred R. Robbins (which I did not see until the chapter on the Grenvilles had gone through the press) for information on the following points, which had escaped my notice.

Sir Bevill gave a silver cup to Exeter College.

He secured the success of Eliot's election, no doubt on account of strong personal friendship, as an anti-loan candidate about 1628. Bagg wrote to the Duke of Buckingham that he desired to have Eliot, Grenville, and John Arundell 'outlawed and put out of the House' ... 'for here we had Beville Grenville, John Arundell, and Charles Trevanion coming to the election with five hundred men at each of their heels.'

He was one of the executors named by Eliot in his will.

He was much encumbered with the debts of his ancestors, and sold (amongst other property) Brinn, his birthplace, to Sir William Noye, the Attorney-General.

He objected to the Bill of Attainder against Strafford, and wrote to his fellow Cornishman, Sir Alexander Carew, 'Pray, sir, when it comes to be put to the vote, let it never be said that any member of our country (county) should have a hand in this fatal business; and therefore pray ye give your vote against the Bill.' But this Carew stoutly refused to do.

He refused the summons of the Parliament 'to attend the service of the House,' pleading the King's special command to continue in his county to preserve the peace thereof; whereupon a resolution was passed disabling him from continuing to be a member.

His praises, after his death, were sung, not only by his old University of Oxford, but also by Sir Francis Wortley in his 'Characters and Elegies,' in 1646; by Robert Heath, in 1650; and by William Cartwright, in 1651.

THE KILLIGREWS. (Vol. ii., p. 119.)

The 1st Thos. Killigrew was buried at Gluvias, not at Budock.

THE ST. AUBYNS.

The letter signed 'Frances Godolphin,' vol. i., p. 173, should read as signed 'Frances St. Aubyn.'

_THE GRENVILLES OF STOW_,

HEROES BY SEA AND LAND.

_THE GRENVILLES OF STOW_,

HEROES BY SEA AND LAND.

'Tell me, ye skilful men, if ye have read, In all the faire memorials of the dead, Of names so formidably great, So full of wonder and unenvied love; In which all virtues and all graces strove, So terrible and yet so sweete?'

_From a 'Pindaric Ode' of 1686._

'The four wheels of Charles's wain-- Grenville, Godolphin, Trevanion, Slanning slain.'

_Old Cornish Distich._

In his 'Worthies of Devon,' Prince, no doubt willingly enough, offers a compromise with Cornwall as to the ownership of the Grenvilles, and quotes Dugdale and Fuller to the effect that both Cornwall and Devon are so fruitful of illustrious men, that each can spare to the other a hero or two, even if wrongfully deprived of her own; even Carew has a somewhat similar passage, in which he says, 'The merits of this ancient family are so many and so great, that ingrossed they would make one County proud, which, divided, would make two happy.'

But, as it appears to me, Cornwall _could_ not, even if she would, spare the Grenvilles--especially the two most celebrated of them, Sir Richard and Sir Bevill--from her roll of Worthies. True it is that the Grenvilles usually took the sea at Bideford (By-the-ford), for it was their nearest port, though they always kept a keen eye upon the possibility of utilizing Boscastle, Tintagel and other North Cornwall ports; true also that Sir Theobald Grenville (probably with the assistance of a priest named Sir Richard Gornard, or Gurney, and others), who flourished in the reign of Edward III., mainly built the famous great Bideford bridge of twenty-four arches; doubtless, too, they had lands and knights' fees, and a house or houses at Bideford in which they occasionally resided: but the _seat_ of the Grenvilles was, from at least the time of William Rufus, at Stow (which even Prince calls 'their chiefest habitation'[1]), in the parish of Kilkhampton, well within the Cornish border, and separated, on the northern side, from the fair sister county of Devon by the whole of the broad parish of Morwenstow.[2] For five centuries or more their monuments were placed in Kilkhampton Church, on which they bestowed from time to time many benefactions, and of which parish many members of the family were Rectors. Carew says that one of the Grenvilles was parson of Kilkhampton, and that he lived so long as to see himself uncle and great-uncle to more than 300 persons: this was probably John Grenville, temp. Edward IV. Of another Rector of this parish the Rev. C. W. Boase, in his 'Registers of Exeter College,' has recorded that, shortly after the year 1316, Richard Grenfield founded a chest of money for making loans to the poor scholars of that Society. According to Lake's 'Parochial History of Cornwall,' the following Grenvilles were Rectors of Kilkhampton, namely: Richard, son of Sir Bart^w. Grenville, 1312; John Grenville, 1524, who also held Week St. Mary; Dennis Grenville, 10th July, 1661; Chamond Grenville, 1711. The Church Registers, as might be expected, abound in references to the family. Their descent, too, is given in the 'Heralds' Visitations' for _Cornwall_[3] (p. 217); and Tuckett rightly omits them from his edition of the 'Devonshire Pedigrees' (p. 38, etc.). They commanded the _Cornish_ forces during the Civil War; and, from their earliest settlement in the county, they intermarried with such old Cornish families as Tregomynion, Trewent, Vivian, Roscarrick, Killigrew, Arundell of Lanherne, Basset, St. Aubyn, Bevill, Fortescue, Prideaux, and Tremayne. That keen observer, the late Canon Kingsley, has, moreover, not failed to detect, in the portrait of the great Sir Richard, the thoroughly _Cornish_ type of face; and, finally, they are rightly included in the 'Bibliotheca Cornubiensis.' It is, in view of all these facts, probably unnecessary to dwell any further on the supremacy of Cornwall's claims to the Grenvilles. But it must be reluctantly confessed that they are, after all, not of strictly Cornish origin; for, though they lived for centuries in the county, they came in, like the Bevills (with whom they intermarried more than once), with the Conqueror; and, as an early form of their name suggests[4] had their first home in Normandy, and were descended from Duke Rollo, and from Hamon Dentatus, Earl of Carboyle (? Corbeil), and Lord of Thorigny and Granville in that country. Their name has been variously spelt Grenville, Greenville, Grenvile, Greenvil, Granville, Grainvilla, Granaville, Greenvil and otherwise--it even occurs in one place as Grinfillde;[5] but it seems likely to be best known in history in the form prefixed to this chapter, and which has been adopted by the Poet Laureate in that stirring 'Ballad of the Fleet,' with which we have all of us lately been delighted, and to which we shall presently have occasion to refer more fully.

Younger branches of the family settled in Bucks and in Somerset, and preserved the favourite old Christian name of Richard, which was also perpetuated in the elder, or Cornish, branch: in fact it has been said that Cornwall was not without a Richard Grenville for 200 consecutive years. Among the earliest of them was one of the twelve knights amongst whom the Conqueror partitioned Wales: he built the monastery in South Wales, now known as Neath Abbey, the ruins of which are a familiar and picturesque object to the traveller by rail to Swansea. In 1653, a Mr. John Nichols, of Hartland, had in his possession 'a prophecy,' written in the year 1400, said to have been found in Neath Abbey, and which was kept in a curious box of jet. It referred to the founder; and ran as follows:

'Amongst the trayne of valliant knights that with King William came, Grenvile is great, a Norman borne, renowned by his fame, His helmet rais'd and first unlac'd upon the Cambrian shore, Where he, in honour to his God, this Abbey did decore With costly buildings, ornaments, and gave us spatious lands, As the first fruits which victory did give unto his hands.'

But the materials for the lives of the earlier Grenvilles are too scanty for our present purpose; and--with one exception--we must therefore be content to dismiss them with the passing notice which has already been accorded to the builder of Bideford Bridge; and with a reference to one of the family, William, who died in 1315, a distinguished statesman, and forty-first Archbishop of York. He was at Edward I.'s first Parliament at Carlisle; and, according to some authorities, crowned Edward II.; he also held several important councils at York relative to the dissolution of the Order of the Temple.[6]

'William de Grenefild' (says Carew), 'from the Deanery of Chichester stepped to the Chancellorship of England, and Archbishoprick of York, under King Edward the First. He was the son of Sir Theobald Grenvill, of Stow, and Jane Trewent, and was elected Archbishop of York in 1304, but not confirmed till 1306, at Lions in France, by Pope Clement the Fifth, who then held his Court in that city, subsisting chiefly by the money which he got of the Bishops for their confirmations. Of this Archbishop he squeezed out within one year 9,500 marks, besides his expenses whilst he lay there, which made him so poor that when he returned into England he was driven to gather money of the clergy within his province at two sundry times in one year; the first in the name of a benevolence, and the second by way of an aid. He much favoured the Templars, at that time oppresst by the Pope, and Philip, King of France, though more pitying them, says Fuller, as persons so stiffly opposed by the said Potentates, that there was more fear of his being suppressed by their foes, than hope of their being supported by his friendship. He was present in the Council of Vienna, where that Order was abolished, and his place assigned next to the Archbishop of Triers; which was very high, as only beneath the lowest Elector, and above Wurtzburg, or Herbipolis, and other German prelates, who were also temporal Princes. He died at Cawood (near Leeds, in Yorkshire), 1315, and was buried in the chapel of St. Nicholas[7] (in York Cathedral), leaving the reputation of an able statesman, and no ill scholar, behind him.' Tonkin also, in his notes to the 'De Dunstanville' edition of Carew, states, 'that the Archbishop was the son of Sir Theobald Grenville, of Stow, and Jane Trewent.'

But Dixon, in his 'Fasti Eboracenses,' says, 'that the birthplace and parentage of the Archbishop of York are uncertain--notwithstanding that both Carew and Fuller state that he was a Cornishman. He was undoubtedly, however, connected with several old and distinguished families, notably the Giffards. Now Richard de Grenville, the founder of the Grenville family, married a daughter of Walter Giffard Earl of Bucks, temp. William I.' Dixon speaks highly of the Archbishop's piety and zeal, and says that he was a most excellent and painstaking diocesan. As to the ruby ring removed from the Archbishop's skeleton in 1735, and deposited in the Treasury, Grotius says:

'Annule, qui thecam poteras habuisse sepulchrum Hæc, natalis erit nunc tibi, theca, locus.'

In Carew's 'Survey of Cornwall' (pp. 111, 112), under Trematon Castle, is the following reference to Sir Richard Grenville, Sheriff of Devon and Marshal of Calais[8] (grandsire of the more celebrated Grenville of that name), a man who 'enterlaced his home magistracy with martiall employments abroad,' and was a great favourite with bluff King Hal:

'At the last Cornish commotion Sir Richard Greynuile the elder, with his Ladie and followers, put themselves into this Castle, and there for awhile indured the Rebels siege, incamped in three places against it, who wanting great Ordinance, could have wrought the besieged small scathe, had his friends, or enemies, kept faith and promise: but some of those within, slipping by night over the wals, _with their bodies after their hearts_, and those without, mingling humble intreatings with rude menaces, he was hereby wonne, to issue forth at a posterne gate for parley. The while, a part of those rakehels, not knowing what honestie, and farre lesse, how much the word of a souldier imported, stepped betweene him and home, laid hold on his aged unweyldie body and threatened to leaue it liuelesse, if the inclosed did not leaue their resistance. So prosecuting their first treacherie against the prince, with suteable actions towards his subjects, they seized on the Castle, and exercised the uttermost of their barbarous crueltie (death excepted) on the surprised prisoners. The seely (_i.e._ harmless) gentlewomen, without regard of sexe or shame, were stripped from their apparrell to their verie smockes, and some of their fingers broken, to plucke away their rings, & Sir Richard himself made an exchange from Trematon Castle, to that of Launceston, with the Gayle to boote.'

Sir Richard, who married Matilda Bevill, died in 1550; and I have been fortunate enough to find two of his poetical effusions--apparently in his own handwriting, now very indistinct in places--amongst the 'Additional MSS.' in the British Museum. They appear to me to be well worth inserting, notwithstanding their queer versification and grammar, and their odd orthography:

'IN PRAISE OF SEAFARINGE MEN IN HOPES OF GOOD FORTUNE.

'Whoe seekes the waie to win Renowne Or flies with wyinges of ye Desarte Whoe seekes to wear the Lawrell crowen Or hath the mind that would espire Tell him his native soyll eschew Tell him go rainge and seke Anewe

'Eche hawtie harte is well contente With euerie chance that shalbe tyde No hap can hinder his entente He steadfast standes though fortune slide The sun quoth he doth shine as well A brod as earst where I did dwell

'In change of streames each fish can live Eche soule content with everie Ayre Eche hawtie hart remaineth still And not be Dround in depe Dispaire Wherfor I judg all landes a likes To hawtie hartes whom fortune seekes

'Two pass the seaes som thinkes a toille Som thinkes it strange abrod to rome Som thinkes it agrefe to leave their soylle Their parentes cynfolke and their whome Thinke soe who list I like it nott I must abrod to trie my lott

'Who list at whome at carte to drudge And carke and care for worldlie trishe With buckled sheues let him go trudge Instead of laureall a whip to slishe A mynd that basse his hind will show Of carome sweet to feed a crowe

'If fasonn of that mynd had bine The gresions when they came to troye Had never so the Trogians foyhte Nor neuer put them to such Anoye Wherfore who lust to live at whome To purchase fame I will go Rome

'FINIS--SUR RICHARD GRINFILLDE'S FAREWELL'

But Sir Richard feels bound to confess that there is another and quite a different aspect of the question; and accordingly frames the following set-off to his former lines:

'ANOTHER OF SEA FARDINGERS DISCRIBING EVILL FORTUNES.'

'What pen can well reporte the plighte Of those that travell on the seaes To pas the werie winters nighte With stormie cloudes wisshinge for daie With waves that toss them to and fro Their pore estate is hard to show

When boistering windes begins to blowe And cruel costes from haven wee The foggie mysts soe dimes the shore The rocks and sandes we maie not see Nor have no Rome on Seaes to trie But praie to God and yeld to Die

When shouldes and sandie bankes Apears What pillot can divert his course When foming tides draweth us so nere A las what fortenn can be worsse The Ankers hould roust be our staie Or Elise we fall into Decaye

We wander still from Loffe to Lie And findes no steadfast wind to blow We still remaine in jeopardie Each perelos poynt is hard to showe In time we hope to find Redresse That long have lived in Heavines

O pinchinge werie lothsome Lyffe That Travell still in far Exsylle The dangers great on Sease be ryfe Whose recompense doth yeld but toylle O fortune graunte me mie Desire A hapie end I doe Require

When freates and states have had their fill The gentill calm the cost will clere Then hawtie hartes shall have their will That longe hast wept with morning chere And leave the Seaes with thair Anoy At whome at Ease to live in Joy.

'FINIS.'

The poetical Sir Richard's son Roger, a Captain in the Navy, lost his life at the sinking of the _Mary Rose_ (commanded by Sir George Carew, a Cornishman), at Spithead in 1545. 'Thus the ocean became a bedde of honour,' as Carew says, 'to more than one of the Grenvilles.'

But it is time that we should turn to a greater Sir Richard--the son of Roger Grenville and Thomasin Cole of Slade.

My task will be on this occasion comparatively light;

'His praise is hymned by loftier harps than mine.'

The famous deeds of the great man to whom I have now to call attention have been celebrated by such writers as his kinsman Sir Walter Raleigh; by Carew; by that master of portraiture Lord Clarendon; by Charles Kingsley; and by Tennyson; and I shall of course offer no apology for not using any words of my own, where I can use theirs: for, as Fuller said of the Ashburnhams, 'My poor and plain pen, though willing, is unable to add any lustre to this family of stupendous antiquity.'